Initial rollout of the LAANC program for Western South an FAA bust.

mdurbanek · Jun 21, 2018

Well, we've been waiting for the June 21 launch of the LAANC here in the Western South region. I guess if the FAA was going to stumble, it was predictable that it would fail in California.

I have three architectural projects ready to shoot, all of which will require some low altitude sUAS views. They are in three distinctly different regions of Southern California - Ventura County CMA (Camarillo), Hollywood-Burbank BUR, and Rancho Cucamonga ONT. The Skyward denial message on all three reads:

"ATC has temporarily disabled LAANC requests for this area. Please try again later."

If any involved FAA employees (or Skyward or Airmap personnel) are reading this, can you please clue us in? We totally understand that things can go sideways in a thousand different ways. But your failure to communicate is disappointing. You are interfering with legitimate commerce out here. Give us a press release or something. Please.

Addendum: all three airports listed above have FAA towers and are included in the LAANC beta. FYI, Federal Contract Towers are NOT participating at this time.

2PM 6/21 Edit: Have heard replies from Skyward and Airmap. They are both holding out hope that the system will go active today.

MapMaker53 · Jun 21, 2018

Give them a break. June 21st isn't over yet.

mdurbanek · Jun 21, 2018

You're correct of course, MapMaker. But the South Central and Western North seemed to be open for business early on the specified dates. Just sayin'. Communication is the easiest thing in the world, and Skyward, Airmap, and the FAA all have our email addresses.

MapMaker53 · Jun 21, 2018

I think we are all looking forward to it, and it must be a huge undertaking for the FAA. Unfortunately, it's going to be a long summer for us in the northeast because we will have to wait til August for it.

mdurbanek · Jun 22, 2018

OK, I take it all. back. Things are working this morning with LAANC. Just received authorization to fly in ONT and BUR airspace. It will now be interesting to see how long it takes to include the Federal Contract Towers.
Thank you FAA and partners.

MapMaker53 · Jun 22, 2018

Glad to hear it. Safe flying!

AIA.AI · Jun 22, 2018

Not all the airports listed are live, yet. I’m sure they will be....

mdurbanek · Jun 22, 2018

Al Diaz aka bigdz said:
Not all the airports listed are live, yet. I’m sure they will be....

Really. I got authorizations for Burbank, Ontario, Santa Barbara and Camarillo. But I deal with a
lot of FTC towers, and I haven’t heard anything credible about when they will be on board.

AIA.AI · Jun 22, 2018

Some of the class D airports here in the SF bay area are on, but there are a few that are not, like: KPAO, KNUQ and KSQL...but sure they will be up soon...

mdurbanek · Jun 22, 2018

Al Diaz aka bigdz said:
Some of the class D airports here in the SF bay area are on, but there are a few that are not, like: KPAO, KNUQ and KSQL...but sure they will be up soon...

It would be good to know what the issues are. The FAA and operators are unnecessarily tight-lipped about the anomalies.

I am not looking to jump anybody’s ***. Quite the opposite. I want to be able to explain to my customers in a reasonable way that I can get them what they need and give them a timetable.

The feds and the folks who work for Skyward and AirMap get a paycheck every two weeks. I’m happy for them, but it just isn’t the way the rest of us live. One dollar I can’t bill today will be worth .75 cents in 6 months.

Zzzoom3 · Jun 23, 2018

Hi,

I live in Ventura County and am Part 61 / Part 107 certified. Prior to LAANC, I have been able to get ATC authorization for the CMA Class D by speaking to the Airport Manager and eventually the Tower Supervisor.

Not ideal as it required numerous calls but an approach you could try in the future, if needed.

Cheers!

AIA.AI · Jun 23, 2018

Zzzoom3 said:
Hi,

I live in Ventura County and am Part 61 / Part 107 certified. Prior to LAANC, I have been able to get ATC authorization for the CMA Class D by speaking to the Airport Manager and eventually the Tower Supervisor.

Not ideal as it required numerous calls but an approach you could try in the future, if needed.

Cheers!

Yes, I did the same thing, yesterday when I realized KPAO wasn't live yet, contacted airport manager and he patch me through to ATC supervisor. He was very helpful and told me when the job drew near to contact them for immediate approval.